Network management systems, such as Hewlett Packard's OpenView™ Performance Insight (OVPI) provide an ability to monitor a network for the occurrence of failed connections between nodes. Failed connections can be monitored as a function of various network parameters. The network parameters can, for example, include parameters stored at routers of the network, and can indicate such variables as the number of packet collisions and/or corrupted packets.
Routers are included in a network to provide connectivity between nodes and to facilitate network communications. Routers can include local tables which, for example, monitor the number of packet collisions. The packet collisions parameter can be compared to a threshold limit value which, when exceeded, can be used to generate an event such as a simple network management protocol (SNMP) event. The comparison can, for example, be performed in the router or within a management station of the network.
Network management systems are known to also include a tool for tracing the route of a packet, for use in measuring the performance of a given path. Management systems can use the monitored parameters, such as the number of packet collisions and/or corrupted packets, to gauge network performance of a given path. The use of these parameters to gauge performance of a path provides an indirect measure of network performance. These parameters may, in fact, have no correlation to actual network performance.
For example, the detected occurrence of a large number of collisions and/or corrupted packets at a given router, based on information obtained from the router's local table, may or may not be an indication that paths to and from the router are bearing heavy network traffic which impacts network performance and the ability of the network to successively send and receive packets between two particular nodes.